*raises hand*

I'll admit to having made several flutes out of pvc pipe.

I have a clutter of them around me now.

Since my main flutes are made out of ceramic, and I've dropped two of my best ones, I only use the PVC ones for practice. The sound is adequate, the range is better than my skill usually allows, so why not.

PVC and CPVC tube is usually the first choice for the beginner flute designer/maker. I like the tone of these instruments. Cleaning the printing off is easy with a cotton ball or rag soaked in fingernail polish remover (Acetone). Keep the swab wet or it will stick to the PVC. Rubbing sanded areas with Acetone will give a smooth polish to the plastic. Copper splices can be used for tuning slides. Try to find some that fit tight.

I dont think oval holes are needed for your first flutes. It's easier for a beginer to play a round Renaissance Style Embouchure/Voicing, in my opinion. A "V" shaped block used to hold the tube/ blank will help when drilling the tone holes too. The ends can be secured with rubber bands. I suggest drilling the holes small and filing after to "tune" them. (Larger = Sharper). Use the Flutomat calculator for the voicing, tonehole sizes and placement...

http://www.cwo.com/~ph_kosel/flutomat.html
or
http://www.cwo.com/~ph_kosel/Flutomat-8.html

For starter holes, I made a simple wall poster. The proportions are the same no matter the key, so I just set out a one hundred unit square with angled lines from zero to the correct percentages for each hole. Then when I have a pipe I hold it up and mark my holes, done in a minute.

But, like Thomas says, I drill small holes, and tune carefully as I enlarge them. I leave the right middle finger more closely placed than most makers seem to do. So it usually is closer to the same size as the other fingerholes.

Bill, the wall poster is a good idea. It certainly takes advantage of the constant proportions of the holes from key to key. How well does the chart work if you use tubes of different bore sizes for various keys? I suppose if you are tuning each hole individually, it works quite well.

I make a "story pole" for whistles/flutes in each key and bore size. Once I have good measurements from a successful prototype, I mark a 1x2 with the layout and use it as a ruler to layout the next one in that key.

Have You seen the video on YouTube or JunkDojo where Paul Marshall uses a rubber band to mark the position of his tone holes? He first marks the rubber band in its relaxed state with the percentage locations of a diatonic scale. Then the concept is that the elastic stretches at a predictable rate so that if you place it on any length tube, and stretch it out to match the sounding length, you will be able to layout tones holes and the flute will be in tune with itself. Look here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7dLyOutCzY

Feadoggie

I had read about that as a tip somewhere. It's good to see the video and get the link. These sort of things are fairly important to me, because my method of making pipes will give me a farily consistent bore, but because of random breakages, might give me inconsistent lengths. Usually this ends up with a pipe too short to use, but often a short pipe ends up with a pentatonic scale and plays quite nicely.

My wall chart has marks for the full chromatic scale, with my favorites marked in color, and the uprights are now marked for general full lengths of keys.

I should make a new one, because this one developed over time, is made out of several sheets of printer paper and has a lot of mistake marks on it.

Bill wrote:

My wall chart has marks for the full chromatic scale, with my favorites marked in color, and the uprights are now marked for general full lengths of keys.

I should make a new one, because this one developed over time, is made out of several sheets of printer paper and has a lot of mistake marks on it.

Any chance you could post a photo of your chart? I've used the rubber band method and it worked fairly well as a starting point.

I'm embarrassed to show my sloppy work, but I can make a nicer one tomorrow and post a photo.

It's easy enough to make, just measure off one hundred units on the x and y axis, then put in the percentage marks for each note.

A diatonic pipe is fairly standard.

The center of the voice hole is at zero, the end of the pipe is at 100% The finger holes are at 43,50,58,68,73 anf 83%, so you mark these on the Y axis at those number of units.

Then draw a line from each of these to the 100,0 point, 100 units to the right, and zero units up (or right on the line). Wait, I can make a quick graphic. Here, this is accurate as to scale. Unfortunately the ledger marks and fine grid lines did not show up.




http://claypipes.pbwiki.com/PipeChart

I like the chart, especially now that I have a visual to wrap my head around.

and copper pipe for a tuning slide... that is a wonderful idea, thanks.

mark

Bill, the wall poster is a good idea.

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